Anybody ever own a twin cam Pulsar?

There's an '87 Pulsar SE for sale near me. I'm a big Nissan guy, and I love obscure, so I could see myself driving this. I know these kind of have a stigma attached to them, and they weren't the greatest, but has anyone here had one? This one has the twin cam CA motor in it, 237k miles. In my few years at the dealership I never saw one of these come in (not surprising), so I don't know anything about them.

Any first hand experience?

Cheap? Buy it.

I had to google to see if we were talking this:

Or this:
Since you are the first year of the red style, I think you got the better of the two.

Yeah, it's like the red one. It's red, too. He's saying $975, but I'm sure I could talk him down even more. We'll see if he still has it once I sell my Z project.

I'd love to get my hands on one of those Pulsars. They scream 1987 at the top of their lungs.

You like obscure?

Definitely the car for you.

Leave the hatch at home, take off the t-tops and have a day of open-air motoring.

just a sentra with a better engine. i love(?d) em.

peter wrote: You like obscure? Definitely the car for you.

You could get that wagonback in the US. There was a guy running SCCA years ago that was up front in GT4 or 5, he switched from the hatch to one of those for aero reasons at the Atlanta Runoffs one year. I can't find a picture of it, though.

Yeah, I showed my wife the pics of that hatch, she got a kick out of it. I think I will try to go take a look at the car, it looks pretty good in pics. I don't know if I like obscure enough to rock the "SportBack", but the regular car or without the hatch looks pretty cool. Stereotypical 80's Nissan...

Anybody ever own a twin cam Pulsar and willing to admit it in public?

FTFY

curtis73 wrote:

Anybody ever own a twin cam Pulsar and willing to admit it in public?

FTFY

Haha...nice. Do you have a reason for this opinion, or just cuz they're ugly? (...and yes, I'll admit, they're kinda ugly...not Pontiac Aztek ugly or Accord Crosstour ugly or Chevy Avalanche ugly, but ugly nonetheless...)

I don't remember them being a good car BITD, but then again, that was mostly hearsay as I don't remember actually ever talking to an owner.

sethmeister4 wrote:

curtis73 wrote:

Anybody ever own a twin cam Pulsar and willing to admit it in public?

FTFY

Haha...nice. Do you have a reason for this opinion, or just cuz they're ugly? (...and yes, I'll admit, they're kinda ugly...not Pontiac Aztek ugly or Accord Crosstour ugly or Chevy Avalanche ugly, but ugly nonetheless...)

No reason... just picking. Its actually right up my alley; a car that was cool back in the day but is so uncool that its cool again.

Much like my 73 Impala, 74 Maverick, or my 73 Hornet wagon

And here's me thinking that you were talking about one of these:

A friend of mine had one back in the day, not a bad car but nothing to write home about. Over all the car was easy to work on and I do not recall anything hateful about his.

Paul B

Your selling a Z for a pulsar... Thats kind of a step down if you ask me.

The pulsar NXs are cool because a lot of the 90s SER/ NX 2000 stuff swaps over (front susp, brakes for starters). I would definitely have to do a sr20det swap to deal with the looks.

I don't think these look bad, but I would definitely lose the tail light louvres. Buddy of mine in highschool had one with the wagon back, and he actually switched back and forth depending on needs. I thought it was pretty cool.

Kind of surprising this idea didn't take off more, but much like removable hardtops, you need storage for it when you aren't using it.

jere wrote: Your selling a Z for a pulsar... Thats kind of a step down if you ask me.

I couldn't agree more. But the Z needs a motor and is a bigger project than I can handle right now. I'm looking for something else fun and just stumbled across the Pulsar. Believe me, this isn't a dream car or anything, I've just always thought they were kind cool.

In reply to mattmacklind:

Yes, taillight louvres would have to go. The car is red so they at least blend in to the lights a little more, but I still think I would take them off.

The more I think about this the more I think it might be pretty decent for autox too...remove t-tops, remove hatch, basic suspension mods + wheels/tires...could be pretty fun!

Dont those pulsars have some CA18 variant in it? or is it the very early SR engine family?

CA16 one year, CA18 the next

Yeah, this is a first year of the 2nd gen so its a ca16de. I think they were rated about 125 hp, not much torque. Could be fun with a few basic bolt ons and the top and hatch removed-they probably weigh a few hundred pounds together!

Ever since this thread started I began actually noticing these on the roads. In the last two days I have seen 6 second gen and 2 first gen pulsars acting as daily drivers within 2 miles of my house.